Scientists Hail "Frozen Smoke" as material that will change world >>> PICS!!

[Yael]

This is beyond cool. :bounce:

A MIRACLE material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

Crayons Don't Melt





You can Hold it in your hand






More at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2284349.ece

[Mojorabbit]

1. Wow! eom

[OKIsItJustMe]

20. Nothing terribly new here

Note the date:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad19jun96_1.htm

Frozen Smoke

First Space-Produced Aerogel Made on Space Sciences Laboratory Rocket Flight

---

June 19, 1996: Aerogel is the lightest solid known to mankind, with only three times the density of air. A block the size of a human weighs less than a pound. Because of its amazing insulating properties, an inch-thick slab can safely shield the human hand from the heat of a blowtorch. A sugar-cubed size portion of the material has the internal surface area of a basketball court. As the only known transparent insulator, Aerogel is a supercritically dried gel sometimes referred to as "frozen smoke".

On April 3, 1996, the first space-produced samples of aerogels were produced by NASA on a flight of a starfire rocket. The production of such materials in space is interesting because of the strong influence of gravity on how a gel is formed. Comparison of gels manufactured in space and on the ground have shown large differences, and the production of gels in space can provide a higher-quality product with a more uniform structure.

...

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/aerogel_factsheet.pdf

...
Aerogel was discovered in the late 1930's by chemist Samuel S. Kister. ...

It's cool stuff though.

[tridim]

2. I've held aerogel in my hand..

It's freaky stuff. It can be made from any gel, it's just a matter of sucking out the water while leaving the solid structure intact.

[Yael]

3. Is it as lightweight as it looks?

Those pics just blew me away.

[shraby]

4. Wonder what the cost is and if it can be used

for insulation in housing.

[Greyskye]

5. Expensive, and yes

In the linked OP, there is a link to a video. A guy has about a 1.5 - 2 inch blob of aerogel, and says it cost $159. quite a bit more expensive then gold it sounds like. There was also mention of someone who did insulate their house, as well as mention of using it to insulate the space suits for the projected manned Mars mission.

[phantom power]

7. makes me wonder if the house insulation was some cheaper variety.

No way you could pay that back, at $159/"small-blob"

[Joanne98]

6. That is cool!

[Greyskye]

8. So according to the text...

...it can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite. And in one of the videos, the guy says that if he applies just a little bit of pressure with his fingers, it would shatter into thousands of pieces.

Does the 'shattering' process absorb all of the blast energy? Do different formulations of aerogel work in different ways? I'm curious at the discrepancy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Ooh! How very Star Trek! :^D

[Fridays Child]

10. Amazing!

[TomInTib]

11. I just bought some on ebay.

1"X1"X1/2"

Man, I haven't been this excited about anything in a while.

Thanks for the post!

[Yael]

13. Are you joking?

[TomInTib]

15. Not at all.

$99.95 plus $8-something S&H.

I just couldn't resist.

They had a much smaller piece for a much lesser price, but I wanted something I could play with.

Also offered was a much larger piece, but it was just too expensive.

Here is the link, just scroll down.

http://search.ebayexpress.com/ps/items/_W0QQ_nkwZaerogel?_ipg=90

[Yael]

17. Ha!

I was about to link that and say, "all I could find was hair gel and tennis racquets".

*snicker*

[Rick Myers]

12. Here's a place that sells small sample chunks...

But they are SOLD OUT!!!

[Systematic Chaos]

14. Um... a link to this "place" might help.

:yoiks:

[TomInTib]

16. Here is where I just ordered mine.

I bought the 1"X1"X1/2"

http://search.ebayexpress.com/ps/items/_W0QQ_nkwZaerogel?_ipg=90

[kentauros]

18. It is a cool substance...

but I've known about this stuff for some time (years, but I don't know how many.) Y'all should subscribe to NASA Tech Briefs and you'll see more amazing stuff like this :D I used to subscribe at some of the engineering firms I've worked for, but pipeline mapping doesn't usually need us to know material science! lol

Still, plenty to browse there. There's also a more in-depth article on wikipedia for aerogel. If they can figure out how to make the process cheaper (I don't know how after reading up on the process) then the price could go way down and all these potential uses could be realized. For the moment, it's likely to only get use in highly specialized fields and devices, as NASA has already done.

Anyone remember all the supposed uses for the high-temprature superconductors discovered by UH's Dr. Chu way back when? I don't think the media ever thinks about costs or the ease of implementation ;)

[madokie]

19. I've seen a picture of someones hand holding aerogel and them having an acetylene torch in the other

lit and holding the flame on it like they were going to cut it like it was a piece of steel and it wasn't burning their hand